Oil extends gains after small rise in US inventories

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, as the US dollar held against its counterparts, and despite an unexpected increase in US crude inventories.

The OPEC-Plus coalition decided on Wednesday to proceed with the gradual increase of oil production that was approved during the last meeting in early April.

Starting next May, the decision includes a hike of 1.15 million barrels per day distributed over 3 months.

The US Energy Information Administration reported today that crude inventories rose 100K barrels to 493.1 million during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 200K barrels.

The dollar index fell against a basket of currencies by less than 0.1% to 90.8 points as of 17:13 GMT, after it hit a high of 91.1 points and a low of 90.7 points.

As of 17:12 GMT, WTI crude December futures rose 1.9% to $64.1 a barrel, after hitting a high of $64.5 and a low of $62.5.

Brent January futures rose 1.7% to $67.5 a barrel, after hitting a high of $67.8 and a low of $66.1.